Search This Blog

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSER SET TO BE P.M.

Swaziland’s King Mswati III is expected to
reappoint Barnabas Dlamani, as his Prime Minister, despite his appalling civil
rights record.

The king has summoned his subjects
to the Cattle Byre at Ludzidzini for ‘sibaya’, a people’s parliament which he
claims is the supreme policy making body in Swaziland.

At the meeting on Monday (28 October 2013), King Mswati is
expected to announce his choice of PM.

The king rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch and he chooses the PM and the government, as
well as the majority of members of the Senate.

Dlamini, was outgoing PM of the Swazi parliament that ended
on 20 September. Dlamini did not stand for election to parliament this time and
has never been elected to public office.

Dlamini has a poor human rights record going back more than
a decade, but he is known to be close to King Mswati. In October 2012, the
House of Assembly passed
a vote of no-confidence in Dlamini and his government and according to the
Swaziland Constitution the king was obliged (he had no discretion in the
matter) to sack the PM and government.

King Mswati did not do so and instead put pressure on the
House of Assembly to reverse its vote.

If appointed, this will be the fourth time Dlamini has
been PM of Swaziland. His record shows him as a hard man with little regard for
human rights. He supports the king in his desire to stop all dissent and brand oppositions
as ‘terrorists’.

When introducing Dlamini as the PM in 2008, King Mwsati told
him publicly to get the terrorists and all who supported them. Dlamini set
about his task with zeal. He banned four prodemocracy organisations.

His Attorney General Majahenkhaba Dlamini told Swazis
affiliated with the political formations to resign with immediate effect or
feel the full force of the law. Under the Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA),
enacted the same year Dlamini came to power, members and supporters of these
groups could face up to 25 years in jail.

Under the draconian provisions of the STA, anyone who
disagrees with the ruling elite faces being branded a terrorist supporter.

The Attorney General stressed that the government was
after supporters of the banned organisations. Supporting an organisation, he said,
‘includes associating with such banned formations or aiding materialistic
through provision of commodities such as food and weapons.’

This happened at a time when the call for democracy in
Swaziland was being heard loudly both inside the kingdom and in the
international community.

Since 2008, the Dlamini-led Government has clamped down
on dissent. In 2011,
Amnesty International reported the ill-treatment, house searches and
surveillance of communications and meetings of civil society and political
activists. Armed police conducted raids and prolonged searches in the homes of
dozens of high profile human rights defenders, trade unionists and political
activists while investigating a spate of petrol bombings. Some of the searches,
particularly of political activists, were done without search warrants.

Amnesty reported that authorities continued to use the STA
to detain and charge political activists. The STA was also used as a basis for
search warrants and other measures to intimidate human rights defenders, trade
unionists and media workers.

Dlamini told theTimes of Swaziland newspaper he wanted, ‘to punish dissidents
and foreigners who come to the country and disturb the peace’.

But, Dlamini’s abuse of human rights did not start with
his appointment in 2008. He was a former PM and held office for seven and a
half years until 2003. While in office he gained a deserved reputation as
someone who ignored the rule of law.

In 2003, he refused to recognise two court judgements
that challenged the king’s right to rule by decree. This led to the resignation
of all six judges in the Appeal Court. The court had ruled that the king had no
constitutional mandate to override parliament by issuing his own decrees.

In a report running for more than 50,000 words, Amnesty International looked back to the years 2002 and 2003 and
identified activities of Dlamini that, ‘included the repeated ignoring of court
rulings, interference in court proceedings, intimidating judicial officers,
manipulating terms and conditions of employment to undermine the independence
of the judiciary, the effective replacement of the Judicial Services Commission
with an unaccountable and secretive body (officially known as the Special
Committee on Justice but popularly called the Thursday Committee), and the
harassment of individuals whose rights had been upheld by the courts.’